Infosys Foundation to grant Rs 24cr to IIIT-Delhi for research

Infosys Foundation, the philanthropic arm of IT software services firm Infosys, will provide a corpus grant of Rs 24 crore to Indraprastha Institute of Information Technology (IIIT), Delhi for three years for research on artificial intelligence.
Infosys too, on its part, is investing aggressively in startups and companies working in new areas of technology like AI, robotics and machine learning.
The grant will be used to establish the Infosys Centre for Artificial Intelligence and will initially be headed by Srikanth Saripalli, an expert in robotics and unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), Infosys said in a statement.
The centre will facilitate work on both fundamental and applied aspects of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and focus on areas like robotics, machine learning, computer vision, AI for software systems, large-scale data analytics, etc, it added.

Besides, the centre will also start a specialised MTech course.
Several faculty members of IIIT-Delhi will be associated with the centre, and research will be conducted by PhD scholars, post-docs, students, and visiting researchers.

The research will draw on real-time data to develop a deeper understanding of AI for societal benefits, and the application of AI in education and related areas.
IIIT-Delhi will publish research papers, develop tools, and conduct faculty and research development programs in AI and robotics.
"Research is the backbone of our national scientific advancements - our collective aspiration. The objective of the centre is to facilitate research in AI that will greatly benefit our society," Infosys Foundation Chairperson Sudha Murty said.

The endeavour is to facilitate the creative exchange of ideas in collaboration with IIIT-Delhi and the government, she added.
Established in 1996, the Infosys Foundation has received two per cent of Infosys' profits annually averaged over the past three years from the Bengaluru-based company.